Israeli strike kills four Palestinian children playing soccer on Gaza beach

Four Palestinian children from the same family were killed today by an Israeli attack, a deadly, harrowing event witnessed by many Western journalists. Above is footage from NBC of a mother searching for her son, who was killed in the attack.

1st shell hit the harbour wall. It’s been hit before so I assume its on a prerecorded grid. Gunner appears to have adjusted to hit survivors — peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014

Beaumont’s post-attack report chronicles who was injured from the same shelling:

The retaining wall of Gaza‘s harbour sticks out into the Mediterranean about 100 metres from the terrace of al-Deira hotel, base to many of the journalists covering the conflict in Gaza. The first of the artillery shells came in a little after 4pm on Wednesday as I was writing on the hotel’s terrace.

There is a deafening explosion as it hits a structure on the pier, a place we have seen hit before, where fishermen usually store their nets. Behind the smoke, I see four figures running, silhouettes whose legs are pumping raggedly. They clear the smoke. From their size it is clear they are a man and three young boys.

Where the harbour wall ends and the beach starts, there are a few brightly coloured tents and chairs for beach users in more peaceful times. The four figures jump on to the beach and begin running towards us and the safety of the hotel…

The second shell catches the survivors as they reach the brightly coloured tents. As it explodes, my colleagues, now standing by the terrace wall, shout at unseen Israeli gunners who can’t hear them: “They are only children.”

And this video posted on Facebook shows journalists including Beaumont and others attending to the injured children at the Al-Deira hotel:

The Washington Post’s William Booth also witnessed the attack; read his report here. NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin did as well. The Instagram photo below taken by NBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin, shows the mother of one of the victims.

The attack will likely be one of the most enduring memories of Israel’s assault on Gaza this year, just as the attack on the al-Dalou family in 2012 and the Samouni family in 2009 is still remembered today.

This post is being updated as more news on the attack comes in. The headline and text of the post has been changed to reflect reports that it was an airstrike that killed the Bakir children–not naval shells, as initial reports suggested.

About Alex Kane

Alex Kane is a freelance journalist who focuses on Israel/Palestine and civil liberties. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.

There is not one Phan Thi Kim Phuc photo (the little naked girl fleeing a napalm strike in Viet Nam) but the combined photos and stories from Gaza this time have indeed changed the imagery of this conflict in the American mindset, imo.

Gosh, those Palestinians can’t do anything right, can they? No Ghandi, and no Phan Thi Kim Phuc.
But I get your point, tokyobk. If theres no Phan photo, could the conditions in Gaza really be that bad?

Mooser– I like you from what I’ve seen so far but I don’t think tokyobk is saying anything problematic. He’s just saying that several photos from this present conflict are similar to the Phan photo. It seems to me– correct me if I’m wrong– he agrees it’s an atrocity and one that may change public opinion

Jenin, I have been trying for a while to tell Mooser that he us fighting with his image of me not with what I actually believe or say. He just has to decide if telling jokes, even if it means twisting my words, is more important to him than the (very serious) subject matter.

Ha amazing, you are really unhinged. I must have really pissed you off because it is so obvious to anyone with a brain what I meant and it was definitely not an insult to the Palestinians braving this staggering assault.

My point of course is that the magnitude of the assault on Gaza has not been encapsulated by just one picture but that the cumulative images are having the effect of that memorable photograph which altered the perception of the war and made pro war propaganda much much harder.

I feel enormous human empathy for the people of Gaza and Palestinians. I just think you need to get a job, a life or if you are going to snark at least get a snark target with whom you disagree. I am sure you and I agree on almost all facts about I/P.

Walid is right. Beyond the human tragedy, as a strategy this is a mistake Israel stepped in.

The untimely death of 4 young boys does not need comparison with anything. If there’s something they need, it’s compassion. They need you to stop this madness. The Israeli embassy in Tokyo is nicely tucked away as an office with a cop next to it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go there and protest. Take a selfie and upload it. That’s what they need.

I do agree with the rest of your reply “the combined photos and stories from Gaza this time have indeed changed the imagery of this conflict in the American mindset, imo.” and sense you mean what you say.

As you said before, we make our choices what to focus on. As you also said, you’ve chosen to try to sniff out any hint of anti-semitism in the comments section of mondoweiss rather than focus on the ongoing extermination of the Palestinians in Gaza. I agree; that’s your choice – knock yourself out. Don’t be surprised, however, if you find that your choice is upsetting Mooser; I know that it burns me up to see people like you focusing on what you consider traces of anti-semitism in the MW comments section in the midst of serious Israeli war crimes and ongoing ethnic cleansing. So excuse me if your “enormous human empathy for the people of Gaza and Palestinians” seems to me a bit insincere in light of the fact that since the beginning of this round of the every-two-year Israeli Gaza turkey shoot your comments at MW have focused more on anti-semitism than on the plight of the dying Palestinians. You build your own image, even if you are blind to that fact.

“My point of course is that the magnitude of the assault on Gaza has not been encapsulated by just one picture but that the cumulative images are having the effect of that memorable photograph which altered the perception of the war and made pro war propaganda much much harder.”

Tokyobk, on whose behalf are you making this point? I don’t need “the cumulative images” to feel horror.

Daniel, I think that Viet Nam image is a really good example of how an image can change a mindset. I might have said “not one singular image…” but I think the misunderstanding is willful.

Frankie P: Yes, Tokyobk lives in Tokyo, and even if focusing on antisemitism is iyo exaggerated or incorrect or inappropriate, it says nothing about ones opinion on Zionism or war among a civilian population and does not excuse a willful misreading that changes empathy into cheering on the death of four kids playing soccer on a beach.

Zionism is the belief in a Jewish state in historic Palestine, not the belief that some people on MW comment’s section are anti-Semites. There are many reasons why I think calling it out matters but I do agree with you that this thread is not the place to list them.

I don’t know about that. There is one graphic photo of a father in a medical facility, pleading with his son to wake up because he has brought him toys. The only problem is that the back of his little son’s head has been blown off. The rest of his skull seems to be an empty vessel.

“There is not one Phan Thi Kim Phuc photo (the little naked girl fleeing a napalm strike in Viet Nam) but the combined photos and stories from Gaza this time have indeed changed the imagery of this conflict in the American mindset, imo.”

Given your comment history, I also find the first part of this fishy. It is murky at best and an attempt to minimise this tragedy at worst. As you have stated that you are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, let’s call it murky. Most people are affected by every single instance, we would only need something “combined” if we were insensitive or rather reluctant to face the truth. I could be wrong in this, but so are you when you give your individual lack of immediate feeling the veneer of “the American mindset”.

If you think calling out antisemitism (even if you think I am wrong) makes my profile “murky” its you that has a problem not me. Maybe you just don’t want Mooser to be a complete nut-job with a beef against me.

The same point is made here everyday: some images get into the american mind and some don’t. Its been very hard to get the Palestinian point of view in the American mind and the majority of Americans still support Israel (most recent Pew). There has not yet been a single image such as the one mentioned but a recent cumulative imagery that I think is starting to stick.

FWIW, tokyobk’s comment history is one reason I didn’t find anything “murky” about his comment. IMO, he’s right: Although there isn’t one “iconic” photo that encapsulates the suffering of the people of Gaza at the hands of the supremacist “Jewish State”, the accumulation of images and accounts coming out of Gaza in recent days do indeed appear to be breaking through Israel’s thick fog of PR propaganda.

Even in my local paper, the reporting on the current crisis is surprisingly different from the usual hard-core pro-Israel stories.

“Maybe you just don’t want Mooser to be a complete nut-job with a beef against me.”

Aren’t you a self-professed Zionist? Isn’t that reason enough? If you are a Zionist, as far as I’m concerned, that’s more than enough reason. Every Zionist is out to in one fashion or another, use or victimise or bamboozle Jews (apart from what they might do to anybody else, and that as we have horrifyingly seen this week, can be just about anything.) And if you are one of those who won’t come out and say it, well there’s another reason. Being a Zionist does not give you the right to be a mushy-mouthed equivocator.

Ah, but calling out the anti-Semitism at Mondoweiss? That is a serious calling, and not one for a nut-job! And I gotta hand it to tokyobk he knew it would be there, and need calling out!

I’m a mother and I’m sick. How many times has this happened? After watching the video of the beautiful New Yorkers shouting down the lunatic friends of israel and now seeing this? The US and the UN created this monster (state of israel, if I’m not clear enough); it’s time to pull the plug and remove all life support from this abomination.

I don’t know whether you can click on it when I have posted this comment or whether you have to cut and paste.
Worth watching what is behind Israel’s vicious attacks apart from trying out new weapons on live people (part of their marketing of their weapons when showing them for sale. It is actually said that they have been tested live. How’s that for amorality?)

Every mother (not the zionist ones) will feel for these poor women. What a horrible and brutal crime. These were little children playing by the water. Is there no limit to Israeli brutality? Is there no limit to their war crimes? The majority killed are civilians, is this the way they are “being careful to target only Hamas, and avoid civilian casualties”? Are they such an inept lot, that they keep inflicting more civilian deaths than militants? Or are they showing their true colors – that they don’t give a damn who their Israeli and American made weapons blow into pieces? This is disgusting, and no apologist can justify these war crimes, much as they try. We should all write to those who support the baby killers, professing to represent us, and ask them why they keep sending aid to these vicious killers. So John Kerry and others who show utter devotion for Israel, who has the right to defend itself again? You think repeating that utter nonsense is convincing the world that the occupier is the victim? Idiots.

After I wrote that comment I thought I should have done a strike through Israel and written Zionism instead, but the edit period had passed.

Israel will be brought to heel, finally, because Israel will delegitimise itself out of existence. That appeals to me, in that we’re using Israel’s own inertia to defeat it. All we need to do is keep telling the truth about the situation…

“The Jewish holocaust lasted 5 years. The Jewish israeli Holocaust inflicted on the Palestinians is now 67 years old…”

Zionists have formulated a unique form of political economy. They think they are owed a free Holocaust. I’m not joking. All their reasoning comes down to that, they have one coming gratis. I wonder what they think they’re owed in takeable lives? That’s a frightening thought.

If anyone can find the interview between CNN’s Blitzer and Naftali Bennet please link it here. It is a worthwhile watch, where Bennet dismissed Human Rights Organization as “left wing” agencies, for their condemnation of killing of civilians, did not answer in a direct manner about the 4 kids being brutally killed, and blamed it all on “Khamas”. He reiterated that Israel never targets civilians, a stand up comedian, for sure.
He showed no remorse for the killing of children, and one could almost sense, they are happy to continue the massacre, because Khamas refuses to stop the rockets.

Yes there is. The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont was there and gave first aid to one of the victims. He maintains the boys were deliberately targetted. Al Jazeera’s Stephanie Dekker posted this picture, which seems to show the boys running away from the scene of the first blast:

But never mind. Israel is ‘investigating’ it. No doubt Israel will find Israel not guilty and blame the parents who let their kids play on the beach when they could have been safe at home. Because of course Israel would never dream of targetting a family home.

I think the whole “Hamas is getting their own people killed” is starting to wear thin. In the end those are Israeli rockets destroying people’s lives. And if you know that someone is manipulating you to kill why would you keep doing it?

The whole ‘human hostages’ excuse is bogus, even if it were true. What it means in plain English is that the Israelis will blast away even if they know they will kill hostages. Imagine how that policy would go over in Europe or the USA? “Police observed the bank robbers leaving the bank with a female hostage and small child. Police then immediately opened fire and killed everyone to eliminate the threat to the public.

“Hamas is getting their own people killed” — this is what you hear, everywhere, in israel, all day long. Hamas is responsible for the massacre, they should know better than to resist us when we have better military advantages. Hamas should have kept quiet when we were executing our pogrom in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

On the street level it is held up by pure racism and the banality of sadism. Yesterday I saw three women soldiers, 18 or 19 years old, laughing and harassing people just for fun.

“This is the beauty of Gaza. You see a person walking down a street or path; he does not have to be with a weapon. You just have to see him with something, and you shoot him.”

“He also described an incident in which a platoon commander ordered the shooting of a woman who was crossing a street close to a house used by Israeli forces: “Suspicious, not suspicious, I don’t know her story. what he did in the end was get the men on the roof and take her out.”

Same IDF indiscipline.
These murders of kids always remind me of Zionists moaning about blood libels.

A day before Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair was kidnapped and burned alive allegedly by six Israeli Jewish youths, Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked published on Facebook a call for genocide of the Palestinians.

It is a call for genocide because it declares that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and justifies its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”

It is a call for genocide because it calls for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes.”

If Shaked’s post does not meet the legal definition of a call for genocide then nothing does.

Shaked is a senior figure in the Habeyit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party that is part of Israel’s ruling coalition.

Her post was shared more than one thousand times and received almost five thousand “Likes.”

Uri Elitzur, to whom she refers, and who died a few months ago, was leader of the settler movement and speechwriter and close advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is a call for genocide because it declares that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy” and justifies its destruction, “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”

It is a call for genocide because it calls for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes.”

The parallels with the Nazi justifications for the Holocaust in general and for including women and children in the slaughter are uncanny.

The Jews did not, nor do not have a national charter that called for the death and destruction of any country. They did not have 6 countries attack Germany on their behalf. They did not have oil money. They did not have ANY status in the UN. They did NOT HAVE a stockpile of missiles to attack Germany. You are wrong on so many levels. Including missing the irony that it was mufti haj Amin Al Hussein who begged Adolf hitler to bring death camps to Palestine. He also created an Islamic nazi S.S. Battalion. LEARN HISTORY as you condone and help plan another genocide of the Jews as spelled out in he Hamas and PLO charters.

Ayman mentions in his reporting that he was playing soccer with these same kids just before the zionists blasted the area. It seems very convenient for the war criminals to hit at an area close to where the journalists are staying.

Why is Fletcher equating israel’s massive, unrelenting attacks from the ground and air, with the firecrackers launched from Gaza? israel has the Iron Dome. Gaza has the bodies of its women and children.

Why is no one condemning the 2nd most heavily armed army in the world, i.e., the israeli cowards with a penchant for shooting from behind Palestinian human shields? Why are these israeli savages allowed to bomb and shoot CHILDREN in full view of so many people, with IMPUNITY? Is Fletcher so stupid or brainwashed that he fails to grasp that the Palestinians have a RIGHT to defend themselves against a deadly israeli force? Which part of Freedom Fighters does Fletcher and his corrupt ilk fail to grasp?

What is wrong with this picture? Where is the goddamned world in the face of this genocidal horror that pastor Niemoeller poignantly grasped in “First their came for…” poem.

Another 4 Palestinian children are massacred by Israel in broad daylight in front of journalists, and Andrea Mitchell’s main concern (after feigning empathy for their families) is the horror of who supposedly gets “the emotional and political benefit if you will, of the horror of the deaths of their population“, and the “international pressure” on poor Israel.

Watch msnbc video (linked by Sumud) from 03:11…

“Ah it’s just ah… breathtaking the loss of those families.
Martin Fletcher, we know that the political context is completely different, but what the world is seeing is a very well defended Israel and people going into bomb shelters on one side, and the Hamas leaders having rejected the ceasefire that Israel agreed to yesterday, ah..are getting the..ah..the emotional and political benefit if you will, of the horror of the deaths of their population.
How long can Israel withstand this kind of international pressure?”

if it weren’t so awful, it would be like a bad joke. The Israeli foreign minister talking about making sure Israeli kids have a good summer vacation and doing whatever it takes (including apparently killing Palestinian kids) to ensure that. And people don’t see how absolutely obscene and crazy this is???

OMG, this has gone from being just infuriating to being a complete horror. Are Americans ever going to wake up or are they too busy shopping for flat screens and tablets and taking selfies?

Sidenote: I called Rep. Castor’s office to ask about her position on the beating of Tarek Abu Khdeir and they basically stonewalled me. Weak. I told them she needs to put her constituents ahead of AIPAC cash.

good for you. I myself am feeling desperate and infuriated. How can everyone continue to go on, business as usual, at best, or defend these horrible atrocities at worst. I have never felt so aware of my powerlessness

They announced there is to be an “investigation,” this is because they did the deed right near a hotel filled with reporters. Apparently someone tried to signal the gunship not to shoot. I think Israel might have stepped into big doo doo this time.

If this new killing of four young Palestinian children the beach and the wounding of several other people in front of the Deira hotel arouses the international indignation it should, we can be sure that Israel’s IDF will mount a rabid disinformation Blitzkrieg as it did over the collective slaughter of Amneh Ghaliya and the seven members of her family back on June 9, 2006. However, providence would have it that The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont along with other journalists saw the incident first hand. As a cautionary note, let us not forget the smear campaign and character assassination that befell HRW’s Marc Garlasco which ended his career as a weapons expert. Forensic evidence he unearthed on Israel’s use of white phosphorous and DIME munitions were discredited after allegations were raised on his collection of Nazi memorabilia…..

Yes seafoid, no investigations needed for that either. Strange when their criminals do something evil, there is always a democratic and civilized response, when it comes to the Palestinians, overreaction and violence, before facts are known.

I cant look at any more pictures either – the picture of the bereaved mother attached to this article is about all I can handle and I avoid it when I return to post again by scrolling past it real quick. Way upsetting.

And I keep wondering what Judge Goldstone must be feeling and thinking tonight as he watches tv and sees these horrific images of charred and limbless child corpses half-buried in the sands of Gaza. Does he feel personally guilty for the orgy of death and destruction that israel has again been allowed to unleash upon the suffering Gazans because he himself, Judge Goldstone, chickened-out on justice at the 12th hour? If only israel was held accountable and punished severely for its last assault on Gaza, this mortifying act of infanticide would not have happened today.

If international law cannot defend Palestinian children under occupation and Abbas has drank the kool Aid stupid, then there is no choice left for the Palestinians but to defend themselves through violent means. The mother effing zionists intend to kill them anyway whether they resist or not. The brute-minded zionists must be stopped from accomplishing their genocidal goal – and all decent human beings should do whatever they can to help end the israel’s 65 year old brutal occupation of the Palestinians.

Racist child killers deserve the hostility, the scorn, and the boot of the world.

Of course now they will blame Hamas or the little children. Israel has this bad habit of blaming the victims of their brutality every single time.
Kerry, is disgusting, considering he is like a muppet moving his head up and down and spewing Israel lies and excuses.
If Israel does not realize it is it’s worse enemy, and that their war crimes are making them lose that PR war and not Hamas, then it speaks to their lack of intelligence. They are so hell bent on bombing Gaza to the stone age, they are not stopping to realize that the world keeps getting updated about their atrocities. HRW says bombing civilian homes is a war crime.
Many they massacred are civilians and mostly women and children.
No brown noser for Israel, whether politician, or in the media, can cover or justify the the brutality, disproportionate violence, against the Gazans, nor cover the lies, because we are getting first hand information about what really is happening, and these minions being interviewed by Blitzer and others, look like first class liars.

I can’t do it anymore either. it’s too enraging. One woman commented on the NY Times article that Palestinians consider themselves no better than cannon fodder, so we have every right to do the same. Horrifying. Could you imagine the outrage if someone said that about any other group? and could you imagine if that was said about Jews it would get through the moderators?

JENIN YOUNES- “One woman commented on the NY Times article that Palestinians consider themselves no better than cannon fodder, so we have every right to do the same. Horrifying. Could you imagine the outrage if someone said that about any other group?”

I don’t mean to shock you, but it is quite common for citizens and officials of Western nations to believe that our defenseless victims don’t value life as evidenced by the fact that they don’t surrender even after we have killed so many of them. A quote to illustrate the point.

RT television just had a journalist on who I believe was at the scene, Harry Fear (sp?). He said the place where the boys were hit is 20 meters from the Gaza marina which is the place where foreign journalists stay in Gaza.

These murders are evidently too much even for Human Rights Watch, with its revolving door for US government types looking for a bit of r’n’r.

Even Finkelstein has come out of his shell and attacked HRW for their double standards. They refer to what Israel is doing as collective punishment while labelling the firing of rockets into civilian areas a war crime.

if the other comments here are correct that the kids were murdered a short distance from the foreign correspondents’ hang out in Gaza, maybe ‘white men’ got the message from the IDF that they could be targets as well. the press narrative seems to have turned a bit on this latest atrocity. even the silly little news scroll on my search engine site has the headline ‘Gaza Tragedy’.

“Gaza: this shameful injustice will only end if the cost of it rises
The idea that Israel is defending itself from unprovoked attacks is absurd. Occupied people have the right to resist

For the third time in five years, the world’s fourth largest military power has launched a full-scale armed onslaught on one of its most deprived and overcrowded territories. Since Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip began, just over a week ago, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed. Nearly 80% of the dead are civilians, over 20% of them children.

Around 1,400 have been wounded and 1,255 Palestinian homes destroyed. So far, Palestinian fire has killed one Israeli on the other side of the barrier that makes blockaded Gaza the world’s largest open-air prison.
…..
As the independent Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti puts it, the Egyptian proposal was a “game” Israel will now use to escalate the war. Some sense of what can now be expected was given by the Israeli reserve major general Oren Shachor, who explained: “If we kill their families, that will frighten them.””

I need to stop reading comments sections. The comments to the Blaze article about this almost all blame Hamas, some say the Palestinians basically kill their own children, a bunch say that they think the deaths are faked and way too “convenient.” Sickening. I felt physically ill after hearing about these poor children and their families and now I feel more so. My heart breaks for them, especially in a world where so many are willing to blame the victims and even deny their suffering.

MHughes, no chance I’ll stop! this is the one site that feels like a safe haven. Every time I get completely discouraged by what I’m seeing and reading everywhere else, I read something here and feel somewhat more optimistic

@Jenin, don’t forget that there is a HUGE hasbara effort underway. Who knows how many Zionists are typing away, each under many different names, to create the illusion that public opinion is with Israel?

Kris–You can see that on Reddit every day, but this one was especially intense. One of their key strategies for an event like this that is difficult or impossible to justify (even by Zionists) is to sow seeds of doubt. By the time the storyline is confirmed most people have moved on but the doubt sticks in their minds. “Yeah, I remember that story, didn’t the Israelis deny that?” “Weren’t the kids working for the terrorists?” “I heard it was staged”, etc.

Qualtrough–yes, absolutely. and Palestinians don’t have the resources to launch these massive PR campaigns to counteract that damage. If you scream loud enough, even if what you’re saying doesn’t really make sense, you drown out all the rational, moral voices around you. That’s what Israel is doing, I am afraid.

The BBC internet report is now leading with a distressing video whose first image is a dead or injured Gazan child. They do have a reporter on the spot. Everything else in what seems to me to be in very determinedly neutral language. Another inch forward but I suppose another yard or ell backward as the bloody mess on the ground in Gaza continues. As Jenin Y remarks, these individual moments don’t mean much without a public campaign to back them up – who now remembers the Pope’s isolated gesture beside the Wall of Suffering? People in the West just hate to focus their minds on this matter.

“…In an interview with BBC Arabic, Gen Mordechai said the civilians in Gaza can take the five hours of ceasefire to stock up on supplies and goods.
The ceasefire was requested by the UN and other international organisations, he added.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28334219

Witness to a shelling: first-hand account of deadly strike on Gaza port
There is a deafening explosion, then a second. Four children are dead. Four survivors reach the safety of our hotel

“When the first shell hit the land, they ran away but another shell hit them all,” said Abu Hassera, 22, whose shirt was stained with blood. “It looked as if the shells were chasing them,” he told Reuters.

Dressed entirely in black, ultra cool Tel Aviv media type and finance minister Yair Lapid visits the home of Yossi and Yossette Mizrahi who have put on weight since their wedding photo which glares accusingly at them across from their trashed bed, an innocent victim of the ineptly titled Protective Edge and which indeed serves as a metaphor for the failure of the fantasies of Zionism to cope with reality.

Nicholas Casey just told Jake Tapper that he’s not seen any Gaza rockets from the beach…now he talks about a Pharmacist being hit by an Apache Helicopter– he says it’s difficult to see why Israel is targeting them.

Now Wolf says the 4 kids would be alive if Hamas had observed the “ceasefire”…. Bennett says Hamas is killing their own children… I feel like puking at those 2.

While Wolf and the rest of the media bots are verbally retweeting the latest hasbara war porn, in a few months’ time they’ll be anxiously reporting on Israel’s delegitimisation fears.
What goes around comes around.

wolf needs to just sign up as spokesman for the GoI– it’s what he’s always been. he proud of everything they do, and his faux concern for the terrorized people of Gaza is just a charade. he even said in this latest report that the GoI is ‘investigating’ the ‘deaths’ of the 4 children.

He won’t even believe the reports coming from the journos that witnessed it!

Now Regev and Wolf are stroking each other…A full general will lead the investigation into the murders of the children…

Over 200 dead Palestinians…in a few days…the destruction to their lives… their homes, hospitals, mosques, agriculture, water resources…and much more….all deliberately targeted by high-tech American made weapons.

Israel’s war crimes just keep mounting….and the Palestinians tragic deaths number keep going up too, hour by hour, …their ripped bodies and their blood are scattered/spilled everywhere. All made possible by American made weapons all given to Israel…year after year…

I grew up during WWII… as a teenager I was obsessed with the history, the atrocities. Could not wrap my mind around the inactions of the German people, ordinary people like you and me. Now I find myself living again in a time of atrocities… and the American people are now inactive, ordinary people like you and me. The propaganda of the two times is different in degree and method. Still, I’m able to find the truth… an old woman now, I can see through all the filters. Surely some of the American people can? Are we just not hearing from them? How can so many people in western media continue to lie through their teeth? Please don’t tell me it’s their job, the money, etc. We didn’t accept those excuses for Germans. Why do we accept them for Americans? There is something terribly wrong with American society today.

It really is about the money. As more and more people are pulling the plug on cable tv, the subscription revenues are dropping. The income derived from the ads is even more than ever valuable as the multimillion-dollar salaries are rising. The people who accept those millions are very easily coerced to do as they are told. Their contracts are up for renewal (usually) every 4 years. These people live in constant fear of crossing their overlords and the resulting end of the rich and juicy flow.

If you hate what you are seeing on TV, perhaps now is the time to pull the plug and watch the shows you like with the help of the internet, or NetFlix, or … It works out to be a lot less costly in terms of wasted money and time, i.e., your ebbing life. Not until the media is made dependent on OUR money will anything change. Free crap is still crap for which you are paying with your most precious asset – your own life. If one wants change, one must do it by and for oneself.

The initial report that it was naval shelling is more likely to be true than the later Israeli “reports” of an air strike. In general, initial reports are less likely to be influenced by political considerations. And we all know how readily the Israeli media machine churns out lies. Making it an air strike lends greater plausibility to the claim that the children were hit by mistake. An observer on a boat offshore could probably see that it was just children playing football. So I would say — don’t “correct” anything, trust the initial report.

Obama to speak about sanctions against Russia from the Briefing room. Will he suggest the same for Israel, for their war crimes? Nah.
How readily they sanctioned Russia, but sanctions against Israel, decades later, still not even considered.

I am sure they know, but they pretend they don’t to the American people.

Hamas may have rejected the ceasefire for good reason. Apparently some say it was a gift for Israel:

“Palestinian and other Arab commentators are blasting Egypt’s cease-fire offer this week in the Israeli-Gazan fighting, saying it was a gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accepted it, and a trap for Hamas, which rejected it.” Haaretz

I got this email before Sisi was email, saying he was a secret zionist, and he had Jewish blood in him. Now I am beginning to wonder if there was any truth to those allegations. He certainly is quite chummy with the war criminals.

“Sisi……, saying he was a secret zionist, and he had Jewish blood in him”

While I can not speak for General Sisi’s sanguinary state, its fair to assume that he may also have just a little of Egypt in him, and yet this does not inspire him work for the welfare, even of those Egyptians who have thus far survived his tenure.

I half wrote a post days ago but was assailed by a feeling of futility and abandoned it, and thus my “prescience” is now no more than hindsight but this is very obvious to any Egyptian.

Egyptian ceasefire:

Egypt is not a bystander to the conflict between Likud and Hamas, it is an active participant with more skin in the game than previously, thus by his idiocy Sisi has squandered his relative advantage in relation to US/Isr. It is an absolute demand of Egypt that Gaza be denied any gains and the removal of the Hamas government is a core Sisi objective, Israel can live much easier with Hamas than can the current Princes of Egypt.
While denying, I cant read the proposal but i surmise, Hamas any gains it will be looking for avenues, elections a Fatah Anschluss from Ramallah, anything to clip the Gazans wings, he fervently wants to extend the ambience of despair and fear currently surrounding us Egyptians, ah theres the futility again but if any of this is any use go ahead and post. Lastly clearly the Israelis realize a ground offensive would be very politically costly, so they have sicced the genius mukhabarat to fool Hamas into a lethal agreement, clearly Hamas saw them coming, but lets be clear Egypt will be urging Likud to invade and smash Hamas, its a trifecta for Egypt, Hamas down, resistance is futile sayeth Pharoah, Israel politically weakened and thus willing to be more generous to Pharaoh, and of course the elevation of Pharaoh to the level of toilet attendant in the court of Uncle Sam.

My youngest girl was 22 yesterday I hope no one ever holds her 25% Egyptian blood against her, she’s north london and is tough but still, I hope not.

I wish someone would ask these US leaders if they are aware of the demands by Hamas, and why no one is pushing for liberating these poor Palestinian people from the Very Brutal Occupation, and violence.

The IDF responds:
The IDF Spokesperson unit had difficulty coming up with an explanation for the explosions which killed the four children and wounded others and it took a few hours for them to begin to respond. Toward 8 P.M they began briefing reporters that the first explosion was most likely caused by an attack on a “legitimate” Hamas target and the second the result of misidentification of the fleeing children as Hamas fighters. The incident is still under investigation, said IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Moti Almoz. He said on Channel One that “we understand there was a target which was hit after suspects were identified. ….http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.605568

It is almost laughable when Blitzer mentions the tragedy on the Palestinian side, he immediately makes sure to mention the same suffering felt by Israel, so that he will not offend them.
He is right now speaking to the IDF spokesperson, who like other officials has this brilliant talent to lie with such a straight face, no blinking either.
Apparently they make sure they investigate any civilian deaths. Wolf fed him the grapes, and he made sure he ate it promptly.

I would submit that Americans and other international observers who have been subjected to two years of the brutality and 10s of 1000s of deaths and 100s of 1000s of refugees in Syria, Iraq, widespread violence committed against children in Africa and European powers using far more violence against former colonies then anything Israel has unleashed against the vocally defiant and militaristic Hamas I would submit that many see the ‘outrage’ at Israel as hysterical, unhinged and increasingly desperate and the average news watcher is not so stupid as to wonder why the same hysterical outrage is not expressed at any other nation. Even worse-many apathetic viewers see the Gaza conflict like a sporting event with ‘points’ scored in casualties. As if Israel is somehow obligated to have more then a few civilians killed just ‘to be fair’ even if Hamas promotes their citizens staying put and allowing themselves to be martyred for the cause. The absurdity is becoming , maybe not clear yet, but certainly less hazy.

And what is extraordinarily curious and suspect is that onlookers who never seemed visibly troubled by far more horrendous conflicts in the region, and who would never have turned out to protest the casualty figures of their own governments’ military interventions, have obsessively condemned Israel at every turn. And the rhetoric from those doing the condemning has become wildly visceral, with the most appalling comparisons between the Jewish state and Nazi Germany, coupled with the equally sickening #HitlerWasRight hashtag.
In other words-the cry of ‘aboutism’ is coming back to bite its proponents on the mouth. No reasonable explanation exists for this disconnect between the absence of one form of protest and the explosive hysteria of the other. I sense much more bloodlust and warmongering on sites like this then anyone seems willing to admit to.

These murders are evidently too much even for Human Rights Watch, with its revolving door for US government types looking for a bit of r’n’r.

Even Finkelstein has come out of his shell and attacked HRW for their double standards. They refer to what Israel is doing as collective punishment while labelling the firing of rockets into civilian areas a war crime.

And what is extraordinarily curious and suspect is that onlookers who never seemed visibly troubled by far more horrendous conflicts in the region

Right DaBakr,

Using your logic, I would assume you have no problem with pedophelia, rape, or child molestation. After all, based on the lack of comments pertaining to those crimes on this board, you never seemed visibly troubled by them.

Or even better. Given that only 4 Jewish Israelis have die, it is quite extraordinary that you have not made any comment about those other conflicts.

I find that quite extraordinary. The the cry of ‘aboutism’ is coming back to bite you harder than ever.

And the rhetoric from those doing the condemning has become wildly visceral

Murdering women and children tends to bring that that out, as does forcing a child to drink gasoline before setting him on fire.

I sense much more bloodlust and warmongering on sites like this then anyone seems willing to admit to.

The only bloodlust seems to be coming from the sadists sitting on deck chairs and having picnics as they watch Palestinians being bombed into pink mist.

That’s an awful lot of words just to say “Israel: We may not be as good as the best but, hey, at least we’re not as bad as the worst!”

It’s not surprising to see yet another Zio-supremacist defending the oppressive, colonialist, expansionist and supremacist “Jewish State” of Israel – a state that hails itself a “Western-style democracy” / “moral beacon” / “light unto the nations” – by comparing it not to the best countries in the world, but to African “hell-holes” and other bottom-of-the-justice-and-morality-barrel nations.

Snow actually allowed a golden moment to go by. If the Israelis can’t tell the difference between Hamas and children playing football on a beach, then how can they claim that Hamas are using civilians as human shields?

Regev just admitted to the absurdity of his BS.

Snow does catch him with a great comment when he says that Regev has admitted that with the most advanced weapons they cannot surgically strike Hamas, so they have factored in that they will kill women and children.

I just wish Snow had smacked him down with the fact that ISrael attacked Gaza not because of rockets, but as a punishment for the murder of the 3 boys and that Israeli leaders admit that Hamas were not firing rockets up until that time.

Take to the streets and protest. Find local activist groups and turn your passive anger in to active protest. This is a black and white issue. There is no middle ground and there can be no sitting on the fence pontificating about the minutiae and irrelevant details whilst trying to rationalize both sides of the conflict. Israel is wrong. Truth and justice is with the people of Palestine.

Show no mercy to the pro-Israel groups on social media platforms. There is no excuse or justification for the pain and suffering the people of Palestine are enduring and have endured for decades. Keep posting more and more messages and images of the crimes Israel is committing. Keep the momentum moving and keep informing others about the crimes being committed. Your empathy is beautiful and you are doing the right thing.

Apparently the idf says they mistook the soccer-playing kids for hamas militants. Yeah right, like 20 hamas militants are gonna be playing soccer on the beach while israel is bombing the sh*t outta Gaza.

The majority of Americans will probably not see this story. As of a few moments ago I could find no mention of this on the Fox web site, ditto for Drudge. This will therefore only be an ‘enduring moment’ for those outside the USA. I see now that Rupert Murdoch is eying Time Warner, so this state of affairs will only get worse.

Abolishing Zionism should be the central focus of the I/P debate. Without understanding the inherent injustice of Zionism the “cycle of violence” makes no sense, especially for Americans who are still in the dark about what Zionism means and how contrary its aims are to our professed beliefs.

@dbcs
“Abolishing Zionism should be the central focus of the I/P debate. ”

Yes. Please do make this the central issue of your fight for justice in the ME. The Chinese, Asians, Africans, South Americans and of course the enlightened Euros really need to understand that obliterating Zionism along with the ‘Zionist Entity’ is the core issue of this whole conflict. Nothing else. Just pure and simple. Eliminate Zionism. It has very little to do with anything Jewish for those that really really know whats going on over their.

>> DaBakreee: Yes. Please do make this the central issue of your fight for justice in the ME.

dbroncos said the abolition of Zionism should be the “central focus of the I/P debate”. Seeing as how Zionism…
– was the driver behind the creation of a colonialist and supremacist “Jewish State” in Palestine;
– remains the driver behind the existence and expansion of the supremacist “Jewish State”; and
– is an impediment to peace, justice, accountability and equality within its / Partition borders, within its illegally-enlarged borders and with the Palestinians it has been oppressing for over 60 years,
…making its abolition the central focus of the I/P debate seems reasonable.

Zio-supremacists prefer believe in Jewish supremacism in a supremacist “Jewish State” of (Greater) Israel, so it’s no surprise that they prefer to shift the focus of the I/P debate to other issues.

“We now have confirmation from the Israeli daily Haaretz of what we should have suspected: that the idea for the so-called Egyptian “ceasefire proposal” was actually hatched in Washington, the messenger boy was arch-war criminal Tony Blair, and the terms were drafted by Israel.

The intention was either to corner Hamas into surrendering – and thereby keep the savage blockade of Gaza in place – or force Hamas to reject the proposal and confirm the Israeli narrative that it is a terrorist organisation with which Israel cannot make peace.

According to Haaretz, Blair secretly initiated his “ceasefire” activity after “coordinating” with US Secretary of State John Kerry. On Saturday he headed off to Cairo to meet with the US-backed Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to persuade him to put his name to the proposal.

Immediately afterwards, he travelled to Israel to meet Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday afternoon. Sisi and Netanyahu were then supposed to thrash out the details. When they failed to do so, Blair intervened again on behalf of the Americans and the pair spoke by phone on Saturday evening.

Here’s the key paragraph from Haaretz:

Senior Israeli officials and Western diplomats said the reason the Egyptian cease-fire initiative was so short-lived is that it was prepared hastily and was not coordinated with all the relevant parties, particularly Hamas.

Wonderful that throw-away last line. In all this activity, it never occurred to the US, Blair, Sisi or Netanyahu – and no doubt Mahmoud Abbas, who is strangely absent from this account – that it might be necessary to sound out Hamas on the terms of a ceasefire it would need to abide by.

Now it seems Kerry is using US muscle to get Egypt, Qatar and Turkey to strong-arm Hamas into surrendering.

It’s depressingly predictable that the corporate media have swallowed the line of Israel accepting the “ceasefire proposal” and Hamas rejecting it. What Hamas did was reject a US-Israeli diktat to sign away the rights of the people of Gaza to end a siege that cuts them off from the rest of the world.”

Weiss interviewed a woman some days ago who talked about the 30’s and the 40’s. Israel is a monster she said. That slid past his awareness, or willingness to deal with it.

So – folks – why did that woman say ‘Israel is a monster.’ As she knows, it did not start in 1967. It did not start in 1948. Why do visitors to this blog fixate on 1967 or 1948?

The murder of Arab innocents, as a ‘blooding’ of the teenagers who it was intended would be the leaders of the Haganah in 1948 and the future leaders of the state of Israel was arranged in 1937 and 1939.

Weiss interviewed a woman some days ago who talked about the 30’s and the 40’s. Israel is a monster she said. That slid past his awareness, or willingness to deal with it.

So – why did that woman say ‘Israel is a monster’, and talk about the 30s and the40s? As she knows, but perhaps the host does not, it did not start in 1967. It did not start in 1948. The savage violence started in 1936.

The murder of Arab women and children, and the children’s grandparents, as a ‘blooding’ of the Jewish teenagers whom it was intended would be the leaders of the Haganah in 1948 and the future leaders of the state of Israel was arranged in 1937 and 1938 and 1939.

Savage murder of the innocent is not an accident of war, except in isolation. If programatic it has been taught to the men who will be called upon to lead their men to do it at the appropriate time.

anon, citing one story we published in 2010 about hedges account in 2001 as a source to support the idea “There isn’t much history here, on Mondoweiss” is bs. we’ve run whole series on history, like the 25th anniversary of the first intifada. we’ve published thousands of articles here.

Did you see the one he wrote before this one, about the Abu Khdeir killing? Sweet baby Jesus, that’s two minutes of life I will never get back. And it was boring! Sub par even by the Dersh’s minimal standard’s. I think he just puts a bunch of phrases in a box, mixes them up and lays them out on a table. That’s how he writes his columns.

BBC is breaking News reporting that Israel has announced a comprehensive cease fire from tomorrow (Friday)

CNN’s Blitzer is pathetically and desperately showing videos, and interviewing IDF butchers, all showing how “precise” they try to be when bombing the hell out of Gaza. They look really bad now after killing 4 innocent boys.
After all Dermer begged for hasbara to save Israel’s lost PR war, and Wolf Blitzer MUST step in to help his motherland.
CNN is behind in news too. They prefer to do Israel’s PR battle, which Hamas was supposedly winning.

The amount of hypocrisy over here is mind blowing.
\
Say hamas would have succeeded in taken over kibbutz sufa as they were trying to do this morning. Do you think they would have spared babies and women? Does hamas spare women and children when it indiscriminately rockets Israeli towns? Did hamas spare women and children during their suicide bombing campaigns?

thanks for being so blunt. israel has been on a rampage since fatah and hamas signed a unity agreement. but israel has no intention of lifting the blockade with or without hamas. israel has no intention of ending the occupation with or without hamas. israel has no intention of agreeing to 2 states with or without hamas. israel has no intention of ending the occupation with or without hamas.

so don’t give us this bs about what will “stop the suffering of gaza” because we all know palestinians will suffer until the world steps in and holds israel accountable.

Bill Clinton: Hamas had a “strategy designed to force Israel to kill their own (Palestinian) civilians so the rest of the world will condemn them,” while Israel couldn’t “look like fools” by not responding to the heavy missile attacks.

Former US president Bill Clinton on Wednesday blamed Hamas for deaths in Gaza, saying the Islamist group “forces” Israel to kill civilians, and warned Israel that its image was at stake.

“Hamas can inflict terrible public relations damage on Israel by forcing it to kill Palestinian civilians to counter Hamas,” he told Indian NDTV news channel.

Hamas had a “strategy designed to force Israel to kill their own (Palestinian) civilians so the rest of the world will condemn them,”

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Bill fails to blame the Israeli government for deaths in Israel, saying that the oppressive, colonialist, expansionist and supremacist “Jewish State” of Israel forces Hamas to kill civilians. And he does not warn Hamas that its image is at stake.

He neglects to tell Indian NDTV news channel that Israel can inflict terrible public relations damage on Hamas by forcing it to kill Israeli civilians to counter Israel’s 60+ years, ON-GOING and offensive (i.e., not defensive) campaign of aggression, oppression, theft, colonization, destruction, torture nad murder.

And he avoids mentioning that Israel has a Zio-supremacist strategy designed to force Hamas to kill their own (Israeli) civilians so the rest of the world will condemn them.

Look, I didn’t link to the web site to disappoint you. I think that both sides, Hamas and Israel must stop hit civilians. I don’t want to see Gazan children, women and old peoples killed by the IDF and I don’t want to see Israeli civilian cities and towns attacked by Hamas missiles, no matter which side you support in this conflict. i hope tomorrow six o’clock all will be behind us.

I agree that whichever side is hitting civilians should stop hitting civilians.

Do you agree that whichever side is occupying and colonizing land outside of its / Paritition borders should stop occupying and colonizing land outside of its / Partition borders? And that whichever side is refusing to honour its obligations under international law should honour those obligations? I didn’t think so.

>> I don’t want to see Gazan children, women and old peoples killed by the IDF and I don’t want to see Israeli civilian cities and towns attacked by Hamas missiles, no matter which side you support in this conflict.

What you also don’t want to see, Potato-man, is justice and accountability. You don’t want to see Israel:
– ending its occupation and colonization of Palestine;
– honouring its obligations under international law;
– accepting responsibility and accountability for its past and ON-GOING (war) crimes; and
– becoming a secular and democratic state for all of its citizens, immigrants, ex-pats and refugees, equally.

Well, they were clearly NOT “playing soccer” while they were hit, they were running away from the previous strike. The event is tragic and Israeli officials acknowledged this, but Mondoweiss is trying to “milk” the sad incident.

One of the eyewitness reports on this morning’s Democracy Now! said that the strikes were some 30 seconds apart. Plenty of time for someone on board the gunboat to determine that the children were just children. (According to that report, the first shell already killed one of the children, presumably while they were still playing soccer.)

thanks lysias, i read that. and i read beaumont’s tweet “Gunner appears to have adjusted to hit survivors”, iow hardly any time. that’s why this comment of asherpat’s seem so ridiculous. ‘they were clearly NOT playing soccer.. because 30 seconds before they started running from the first blast’!

BBC Newsnight anchor was interviewing the Israeli Ambassador to the UK and didn’t miss the opportunity to mention the killing of the boys that “were shooting pigeons” (or something like this, she definitely didn’t say that they were “playing football”.

But it doesn’t matter, Lysias your point about “plenty of time for someone on board the gunboat to determine…” first, are you sure it was a boat and not an aircraft? What experience in military hardware do you have and what access to Israeli military personnel to determine that it was possible or easy?

Lysias, you imply that Israel targets children deliberately, but even Judge Goldstone conceded that this isn’t true.

UNRWA: Yesterday, in the course of the regular inspection of its premises, UNRWA discovered approximately 20 rockets hidden in a vacant school in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations.

Support Mondoweiss’s independent journalism today

Mondoweiss brings you the news that no one else will. Your tax-deductible donation enables us to deliver information, analysis and voices stifled elsewhere. Please give now to maintain and grow this unique resource.